Theatre

Coriolanus

Something wild this way comes. Wild and wonderful. Shakespeare and sense may sometimes take a battering in this outdoor version produced by the Polish Teatr Modjeska, but the story of the Roman general who comes to power but turns his back on the needs and demands of the ordinary working people is staged with a pulverising and bloody brilliance. Like the Georgian Antigone that graced the Assembly Rooms last week, this is theatre that is utterly relevant, a piece in which what happens on stage is born out of the political situation in which it was created.

Modjeska directors Jacek Glomb and Krzysztof Kopka were both supporters of Solidarity in the 1980s, and this production can be seen as a statement of their disillusionment with Polish politics in the post-communist era. There is a sense in which this is their own history being enacted.

Knowing this is as important as knowing the play well, but even if you were ignorant of both, it is still a thrilling evening, during which the entire Old College Quad blazes with fire and sound, feathers fly and blood is spilt. The entire experience, in which the audience has to get out of the way of the rabble or get hurt, is like being caught up in a revolution.

Sometimes you long for more subtlety, and sometimes you wish you understood Polish, but mostly you just surrender to the sound and fury of history, and of people forever on the march in search of genuine democracy.

About this article

Theatre: Coriolanus

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 19.00 EDT on Sunday 12 August 2001.
It was last modified at 19.00 EDT on Thursday 25 April 2002.
It was first published at 19.00 EDT on Thursday 25 April 2002.